Newfoundland – 350orbust

What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger

September 17, 2012 by Christine

If all goes well, and Hurricane Leslie hasn’t kept us inside all week, we (my husband and I, along with two good friends – at least they were friends before the hike started!) will have completed our hike in the Long Range Traverse back country of Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland. This will be the third time that Mark and I have visited Newfoundland; we love the scenic beauty of The Rock as well as the warmth and hospitality of its people. If you haven’t visited Newfoundland yet, put it on your bucket list! This will be the first time, though, that we have attempted a 5 day trek, following our compass rather than a trail, in the park. All four of us are a bit nervous about it, but as the headline says, what doesn’t kill us will make us stronger.

Here’s a blog posting from our previous trip in September, 2009. The Long Range Traverse starts at the end of Western Brook Pond, the body of water featured in the photos below.

Gros Morne National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is one of my favourite places in the world. We’ve visited it twice, most recently in September 2009. We were luckier this visit than the first time, when the sun didn’t shine long enough for us to do a tour of the stunning fjord in the park, Western Brook Pond. This time the sun shone all day. This slideshow shows pictures of our boat tour of Western Brook Pond, as well as the eight kilometre (one way) Snug Harbour hike that we did after the boat tour.

[slideshow]

Hiking In Newfoundland’s Rugged Gros Morne Highlands

September 13, 2012 by Christine

If all goes according to plan, I will be starting the first (and hardest) day of the Long Range Traverse Trail in Gros Morne Park on the west coast of Newfoundland. The hike begins at the eastern end of Western Brook Pond, a stunning inland fjord. After being dropped off by boat and spending the night at a campsite near the dock, we (my husband and I and two friends) should be climbing the four kilometres uphill. The rest of the 3 – 4 days is less climbing but still challenging to navigate, we hear. I’m hoping we will meet some woodland caribou on our trek, as we will be passing through their territory. If we do, rest assured pictures will be posted here. Here’s a glimpse of what I could be doing right now:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-dWIdBURkA&feature=player_embedded#!]

Warming Atlantic Linked To Hurricane Igor Devastation in Newfoundland

September 23, 2010 by Christine

Much of the east coast of Newfoundland was devastated by Hurricane Igor on Tuesday. Roads have been washed out, electricity is gone, communities have been cut off from help, and one man has been washed out to sea. By now, at least 30 communities have declared a state of emergency.

The news coverage that I heard yesterday had locals emphasizing the unusual strength of Igor. The town clerk from Bonavista interviewed on As It Happens on CBC radio said he’d never seen winds that strong or rainfall that heavy in his lifetime – and Bonavista is on a windy, wet peninsula! Sam Synard, the Mayor of Marystown was quoted in The Star as saying:

“We’ve never seen such a violent storm before.” Synard reported that more than 200 millimetres of rain was dumped in 20 hours, “and very few, if any communities in the country, could deal with that amount of rainfall.”

My heart goes out to Newfoundlanders – “The Rock” is one of my favourite places on earth. The header photo on my blog was taken during a visit last September. I wish the good people of Newfoundland Godspeed in their recovery from this devastation.

Unfortunately, the warming of the atmosphere and the resulting warming of the ocean which has happened as a result of our unbridled burning of fossil fuels in the last century is making severe weather events like this more and more frequent. The economic as well as the human toll will only increase (the Newfoundland government is predicting it will take at least $100 million to repair the damage from this storm). Recent research has shown that we are experiencing more storms with higher wind speeds, and these storms are more destructive, last longer and make landfall more frequently than in the past. This is our new reality, in Canada and around the globe, as the Arctic ice and the permafrost melt, and the oceans get warmer. We are starting to reap the destruction that we have sown, and it’s not going to be pleasant.

It’s time for all of us to demand that our governments, particularly at the federal level, start addressing this issue in more ways that just preserving Canada’s claim to the Arctic so we can dig up more oil and gas! For ways to do this, check out Cheryl McNamara’s recent post on Bill C311 – the Climate Accountability Act, or go to my “Action not Apathy” page.